“The last thing many believers need is to go to another Bible study. They already know far more than they are putting into practice. What they need are serving experiences in which they can exercise their spiritual muscles.”

–Rick Warren, propounding his Martha-style Christianity and works righteousness theology.

My response: At a time of unprecedented biblical illiteracy and rampant carnality among evangelicals, the last thing they need is to be told not to study the Bible. But if you aren’t working, you’re just a useless feeder in Rick’s world. And besides. If you actually do read your Bible, you’ll figure out pretty quickly just how off base Rick Warren’s social gospel really is.

Christian Post has a sad story:

Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren is working on his next book – the follow-up to the bestselling Purpose Driven Life, which launched the Southern California preacher into national prominence.

“I’m in book writing mode right now,” Warren reported in a broadcast to his church members Thursday. “I’ve gone back into hibernation to write the follow up to Purpose Driven Life now, eight years later. It’s going to be called The Hope of the World, and my plan is to release that on Easter Sunday – our 30th anniversary – next year.”

Warren had announced during the 2009 Purpose Driven Network Summit in May that he was going to take some time off soon to work on his next book, which will be about the Church and its role in today’s times.

On Thursday, the evangelical leader asked church members to pray for him as he’s writing. “[P]ray … that God’s Spirit will guide me in writing this next book just as He did with Purpose Driven Life so that it can change hundreds, thousands, and even more than of lives all around the world,” he said.

What God would that be; based upon all the Scripture-twisting and false doctrine within PDL, it isn’t likely it was the God of the Bible Who “guided” Warren.

Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church features a comedy group that does Christian improv. A secular comedian decided to visit to see what exactly Christian improv looked like, and as expected, Christians came across looking like, well, a joke. Excrement is apparently howlingly funny to the Purpose-Driven at Saddleback. That doesn’t stop the chief jester of improv from fancying his work as something akin to Bach’s cultural contributions.

Afterward, lots of supernice Christian people complimented my Christian-bashing jokes, including Tony Guerrero, Saddleback’s director of creative arts, who also throws a jazz and Shakespeare festival at the church. I asked him what exactly the point of all this was, and he said, “If you look back in history, most of the arts were done for the church. All the music of Bach and Mozart was written for the church. We’d like it to be a hub for the arts again.”

Here’s the story from Time magazine.

 From The Orange County Register as cited at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) website:

Speaking to a crowd of nearly 8,000 Muslims at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention in Washington D.C., Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren called on Muslims and Christians to form an interfaith coalition to combat prejudice and stereotypes. While Fourth of July revelers staked out seats to watch fireworks at the nearby Capitol Building, Warren addressed convention-goers – some of them from Orange County Muslim student associations – about the need for mutual respect.

“Tolerance is not enough,” Warren said. “People don’t want to be tolerated, they want to be respected, they want to be listened to. They want to be valued.” Armed with four ideas for action, Warren called on Muslims and Christians to work together to create respect, restore civility to civilization, promote peace and tackle major world problems. “I am not interested in interfaith dialogue, I am interested in interfaith projects,” Warren said. “Talk is very cheap.”…

If you haven’t yet heard Warren’s talk at ISNA we have a video of it below that apparently the Saddleback censors missed. You may want to save it quickly as odds are it will be gone within an hour.

 Washington Times brings us a secular persepective in this story concerning Warren’s latest violation of 2 Corinthians 6:14-15, which also shows immediately where Rick Warren jumps the track as a minister of the gospel:

The Rev. Rick Warren, one of America’s best-known evangelical Protestant pastors, pleaded with about 8,000 Muslim listeners on Saturday night to work together to solve the world’s greatest problems by cooperating in a series of interfaith projects.

“Muslims and Christians can work together for the common good without compromising my convictions or your convictions,” Mr. Warren said during an evening session of the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) at the Washington Convention Center.

“I am not interested in interfaith dialogue but interfaith projects,” said the pastor of the 24,000-member Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., who is widely known for his bestseller “The Purpose-Driven Life.”…

If Warren’s so concerned about “the common good” that he’s willing to compromise the Gospel in order to accomplish his humanitarian goals, then he should immediately resign from ministry so that he’d be free to be simply a social worker.

In a similar vein to the Jan Markell letter the Press Release here was released by Steve McConkey to some 1400 news outlets concerning Rick Warren and his unbiblical alliance with the false religion of Islam. May the Lord bring about proper balance and focus on the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Following is an Open Letter to Rick Warren by Jan Markell, head of Olive Tree Ministries. It was originally published in her email newsletter today.

On July 5 the Washington Times online reported that Pastor Rick Warren told his Islamic audience, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA,) that he envisions “a coalition of faith.” Whether Pastor Warren knows this or not, this is just another term for the coming one-world religion outlined in Revelation 13. It is further outlined in Revelation 17. I have not taken on the issue of Rick Warren all that often, but after reading what the Washington Times has to say about his message to a group of spiritually lost Muslims, I feel I must address this in an open letter to who many say is the most influential pastor in America and some would say the world.

Pastor Warren, you pleaded with 8,000 Muslim listeners on Saturday, July 4, to work together to solve the world’s greatest problems by cooperating in a series of interfaith projects. You said, “Muslims and Christians can work together for the common good without compromising my convictions or your convictions.”

Pastor Warren, you needed to compromise the convictions of the Muslims in attendance. To just say that “My deepest faith is in Jesus Christ” was not enough to a thoroughly lost crowd. The hour is too late to withhold a gospel message without which they will face a Christless eternity, and you will be held accountable. The “world’s greatest problems” will always be with us and the Bible says so in Matthew 26:11. Sin is at the root of them. I have to conclude you are more interested in ecumenical unity and solving AIDS, poverty, and other social issues. Last Saturday you were given a golden opportunity that 99.9% of American Christians could never get.

You said you were not interested in interfaith dialogue, but you seize every opportunity to talk to all religions and you always leave out the gospel. You even address Jewish groups but you tell them how to grow a mega-synagogue like your own church, Saddleback. In this “can’t we all get along?” generation, you usually leave out the only good news left: There is salvation in Christ and Christ alone (Acts 4:12), and the hour is late, so make a conscious decision to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You told ISNA, “Talk is cheap but love is something we do together. We must do something to model what it is to live in peace, to live in harmony.” Pastor Warren, you know your Bible better than that, don’t you? The Bible says there will never be peace and harmony in this world until the Messiah rules from His theocratic kingdom. The U.N. spews the same kind of pagan “peace concepts.” Aren’t you above that? You would likely never suggest your Muslim audience pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm122:6), yet you push for foolish and hopeless ecumenical peace!

In your speech you included three suggestions: 1) Create a coalition to end religious stereotyping; 2) Work together to restore civility to American society; 3) Take a common stand against attacks on freedom of religion and freedom of speech. There is civility in American society so why are you even suggesting there might not be? But you won’t find much of it in Islamic society. Go see the film, The Stoning of Soraya M, the true story of what happens to a lot of innocent Muslim women. It’s a lot more gross and bloody than any horror flick and this is reality, not fiction. The Muslims you addressed know all about this procedure. ISNA wants Sharia Law everywhere on earth! You missed a golden opportunity to challenge them to stand up to Islamic governments that perpetrate such atrocities.

Pastor Warren, you then went on to say the media was clueless as to what Christians and Muslims believe. They know very well what both faiths believe. They believe Christians are the new Taliban, and they press for hate crime legislation that will protect Muslims. You then said, “It’s the truth that sets us free.” Why did you take John 8:32 out of context? You twisted the very words of Jesus when you should have been proclaiming the words of Jesus.

The ISNA stated how impressed they were with your charitable work. What charitable work have they done? As terror expert Steve Emerson says, “ISNA has has been an umbrella and a promoter of groups that have been involved in terrorism.” Here again you could have challenged them, but then you would not be invited back had you done so.

Joseph Farah says, “Suffice it to say the ISNA is no friend of Christianity or America.” Yet in 2007, Rick Warren was one of many “evangelical leaders” who signed a document begging forgiveness from Muslims for all the evil deeds perpetrated against them by Christians. What evil deeds have true Christians committed against Muslims? Now, Pastor Warren, you’ve gone beyond pandering and are sounding like a fool along with all others who signed that document.

Even the secular Washington Times noted, “Mr. Warren was sparse in his mentions of Jesus and God.” But since works and good deeds were stressed, this reinforced the belief of ISNA members that works will help them get to Heaven.

Pastor Warren, you stated you were committed to “the common good” and that you are commanded to “respect everybody.” You don’t want to deal with the verse that says we are to preach to gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). It seems to me that you are more interested in marching hand-in-hand with other faiths down the winding road to the coming one-world religion.

There is literally a mini-revival going on with Muslims turning to faith in Jesus, particularly out of the U.S. It would have been nice, Pastor Warren, if you would have thought of that and tapped into it. We don’t expect you to give altar calls at such meetings as this one. We do expect you to lift high the Name of the Prince of Peace who is coming again and who offers eternal life to all who ask, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30, Acts 16:31). Many just wanted some variation of that quoted among your many ecumenical statements and how to solve the world’s problems — impossible without God’s help…

Awaiting His return,

Jan Markell

Joseph Farah’s commentary on Rick Warren’s trip to the Muslim convention this past weekend is a must read.

Yesterday afternoon, the Purpose-Driven Connection link to the “Michael Jackson, Jesus and Me” article disappeared from their online magazine without explanation. The cached version is still available here.

David Pack, member of Saddleback Church, has written the following on the Purpose Driven Connection:

“I know Michael loved Jesus with all his heart. Quincy had told me about his work sharing his faith with others.”

Pack “knows” this for sure and claims Michael is now moonwalking on the heavenly streets paved with gold. Pack even goes so far as to suggest that Jackson was considering giving up music for a full-time Christian ministry. So the three motherless children, conceived for his own selfish pleasure, the hundreds of millions of dollars in debt because of his foolish and greedy spending, the open admission of his proclivity for sleeping in bed with young boys, the ego, the bodily mutilation, the homosexual sex that was just written about as recently as his stay in Las Vegas, the prescription drug abuse, all of this must be the fruit of Michael’s Christian faith, eh, Mr. Pack?

Michael’s biographer, Ian Halperin, wrote the following:

“In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.”

Ian adds the waiter showed him evidence of his alleged affair with Michael, including photos of the pair together.

“When Jackson lived in Las Vegas, one of his closest aides told how he would sneak off to a ‘grungy, rat-infested’ motel – often dressed as a woman to disguise his identity – to meet a male construction worker he had fallen in love with.”

Ian has written a book about Michael titled ‘The Final Years Of Michael Jackson’, and claimed the singer had just six months to live last December.

–Mail Online (UK)

Maybe this is Christianity according to Saddleback, but in any event, Mr. Pack’s description of Michael Jackson as a vibrant Christian, sharing his faith, is laughable according to every report from those surrounding the poor man in his last days. Michael needed the Lord Jesus Christ to fill the enormous void in his life. Plastic surgery, hyperbolic chambers, hundreds of millions of dollars and world-wide acclaim was never enough to do it. Michael was in the process of trying to reclaim his “god” status with the public in one last, deluded attempt to find what he was seeking. Tragically, his prescription drug-fueled attempts came to a sudden halt when his life ended. Yes, it is a tragedy.

Here’s a good post on the subject: The King of Pop Meets the King of Glory.

“The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”
—Just one of the hate-filled quotes on the website for the Islamic Society of North America. Rick Warren will be speaking to their convention during the 4th of July weekend.

The Canadian Free Press is raising questions about Rick Warren that the Southern Baptist Convention refuses to. What in the world is Warren doing speaking at an Islamic Society of North America gathering? To preach Christ crucified? To rebuke them for their hatred of Israel and promise to destroy it? To speak out against the growing number of “honor killings” in North America? The Southern Baptist Convention leadership has given Rick Warren a free pass for far too long. Now the world has to come along and ask the hard questions.

HT: Christian Research Network

Rick Warren’s new online magazine, Purpose-Driven Connection, is also promoting the heretical book, The Shack. It would not bother Rick that author William Paul Young denies the penal substitutionary atonement. Doctrine does not matter. What matters is if you feel “moved”, if you laugh, if you cry, if you feel “transformed” by whatever popular book is on the best seller list. Who cares that the substitutionary atonement is at the heart of the true Gospel? Who cares if William Paul Young is denying this basic biblical doctrine? He wrote a book that emotionally moves us, and that, today, is all that matters.

Rick Warren is a keynoter at the Islamic Society of North America’s Fourth of July weekend annual convention. He’ll be talking about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What would you tell a convention of Muslims about the pursuit of happiness? Would you feel impelled as a follower of the one true God to let the Muslims know that true happiness is only found through the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son? Or would you talk about finding a “higher purpose”, “living for others”, and all the ways we can feel better by finding something “bigger than ourselves” to live for? We’ll be watching and waiting for Rick Warren’s contributions to the discussion at the convention. I can say, authoritatively, that “God” will be talked about a great deal. That Muslims worship a false God and are lost for all eternity unless they repent and believe the Gospel, will not be said to these lost souls. You can take that one to the bank.

Thank you, Rick Warren, for providing the rotten root producing this rotten fruit. The article is from the Wausau Daily Herald. How’s this for a life’s philosophy? The columnist, Mary Duwe writes:

I began to redesign the view from a new point of view. My new slogan, dated 3-03-03 and inscribed in the back of the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, became, “My perfect day starts gradually waking up in the morning, wherever I am, at any age, bounding out of bed because there is something waiting for me that I love to do, I believe in, I am good at doing; a purpose bigger than me. I can hardly wait to get out of bed to begin again today.”

(Bold emphasis mine.)

Well, think of all the Purpose-Driven guys out there, bounding out of bed, to do something they love, something they’re good at, serving a purpose bigger than themselves—members of the Taliban, for example, or the Mexican drug cartel that is currently turning the southern border of the United States into a war zone, North Korea’s Kim Jong iL or Fred Phelps as he prepares his latest “God Hates F-gs” assault on a grieving family at a funeral. They love what they do. They serve a purpose bigger than themselves (the devil), and they’re really, really good at it. Come to think of it, Hitler would have qualified rather well for this new way of looking at life. Who would deny he was good at genocide, loved taking over countries and enslaving his people?

The Purpose-Driven columnist says she learned things on her new life’s journey:

• Only your heart knows true desire.

• Only your heart sees life as a sacred experience.

• Only your heart can identify your sacred moments.

• Only your heart comprehends the conditions needed for perfect possibilities.

• Only your heart surrenders to the awesome wonders of impossible accomplishments.

Yes, just like the guys flying planes into the World Trade Center whose hearts were set on killing thousands of Americans and whose “sacred moment” came as they entered eternity supposedly to get great rewards from Allah for their efforts. The heart, Scripture tells us, is a dangerous guide for us to follow.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

–Jeremiah 17:9

Rick Warren has not bothered to inform his interfaith and secularist followers that only hearts that are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, can be given right desires by the Lord. He has informed millions that “finding a cause bigger than yourself” and “finding out what you’re good at” is enough to give you a fulfilled life. Rick Warren has misled so many by denying the true Gospel that calls us to follow Christ alone and His desires for our lives. Warren is a celebrity as a result. But some day before God, the souls of these misled people will be on his hands. We’ve done all we can to warn.

Lifesite News reports on Dr. Al Mohler’s response to Rick Warren’s distancing himself from his support for Proposition 8 on Larry King Live.

**The Political Machine blog is covering Rick Warren’s non-appearance on ABC’s This Week program amid some questioning from a number of media sources regarding his position on Prop. 8 and gay marriage.  Trying to please everyone is a dead end street, Rick.**

The One Sheep’s blog has posted two videos that say all that is necessary about Rick Warren’s Proposition 8 controversy.

Berit Kjos has posted this article on Rick Warren and Proposition 8.

During a recent CNN interview on Larry King Live, Warren assured his host that-

“During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never — never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going.”[2]

But he was lying! According to Brown, Pastor Warren had “issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members.” Ponder Warren’s stated position two weeks before the Prop. 8 vote on November 4…

Also, see the Washington Times coverage, Warren Waver on Prop. 8 Stuns Leaders. (The comment section is very interesting.) We should feel for Rick Warren. It isn’t easy trying to play both ends to the middle. Straddling that fence gets really uncomfortable after a while.

**Update**One News Now published this report today on Rick Warren’s shameful turnaround on Proposition 8 and how it damages the church.

Here is Rick Warren in his own words. What Rick Warren thinks or doesn’t think about homosexual marriage doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. The real issue is whether God is anti-gay marriage, and those who read the Scriptures are well aware that God has spoken for all time in His Word on homosexuality.

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind:it is abomination.”

–Leviticus 18:22

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But  you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

–I Corinthians 6:9-11

“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another,men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

–Romans 1:26-27

Here is more from One News Now on Rick Warren’s apology on Larry King Live this week for his support for Proposition 8. This is what passes for evangelical leadership today. It’s no wonder churches are such a profane and confused mess while the soldiers of Sodom continue to march consistently and tirelessly towards their objectives.

Rick Warren has found that even the slightest hint of adherence to biblical principle on national TV risks his being locked out of the elite corridors of power. Rather than stay faithful to God and the Bible like John Hus in my earlier post today, Rick Warren lusts after temporal power, acceptance and influence. He has given up biblical Christianity for a mess of political pottage, Esau-style. What a Faustian bargain it is.